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Sunday, August 31, 2014

Pastors arrested in Greater Noida under pressure from Hindu groups

At least 10 Christian pastors were brought in for questioning to
Surajpur Police station in Greater Noida on Saturday over allegations
that they were “forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity”. Soon
after their detention, the police station was surrounded by protesters
from various Hindu groups.

Christian community leaders in Greater Noida said allegations of
forced conversion had been trumped up and were aimed at creating
mistrust in the district.

The Gautam Buddh Nagar police said the 10 pastors were allegedly
participating in a fasting ritual, which was not connected to religious
conversion, at Kulesra village.

But, SP (Rural) Brijesh Kumar Singh said since they had received
complaints from villagers, the matter would be investigated. Police said
no FIR had been filed yet.

Meanwhile, protests outside the police station reflected the growing communal tension in the area.

Reverend Wilson Joseph, president of the Calvary Ashram Seva Sangh,
has been working in Uttar Pradesh since 1992 and has been in Greater
Noida for the past 12 years.

“I have never seen this kind of communal tension. We are not even
being able to get close to Surajpur police station. Some members of our
church, who went there, were beaten up. We will file a complaint once
the mob clears,” he alleged.

Joseph alleged that members of the RSS had incited villagers at Kulesra village through false allegations of forced conversions.

Sources indicated that police initially intended to let the pastors go
after questioning, but the protests outside the police station made that
difficult.

Police denied that the incident had sparked off communal tension in
the area. “There were allegations made that these Christian pastors were
forcing people to convert. Police brought them in for questioning. We
will be investigating the matter,” Singh said.

Police sources said tension had been brewing in the area for the past
few months, with rumours doing the rounds that Hindus, especially
Dalits, were being converted forcibly. But, police said they had no evidence to corroborate the rumours.

“The allegations of conversions are primarily regarding the Dalit
community, which is the poorest. Many convert because they think that
they will be able to escape caste-based biases. Others think that there
will be financial benefits of such a conversion,” Singh said.

However, minority activists alleged that rumours of “forced
conversions” were being spread with the intent of spreading communal
tension to reap political dividends. “Hindu organisations connected to
the RSS and VHP are spreading tension based on the propagation of their
ideology that Christianity is inherently alien,” John Dayal, civil
rights activist, alleged.